A Visit to Silent Hill
by NostalgicNinetails
Summary: A regular gamer now brought into the world of the game. Can she survive with a follower that's a little less than trustworthy? -R&R please-
1. The Start of The End

**AN: I wrote this story back in 2010 and since then there's been a lot that has been added to the story. Don't be surprised if you read the chapter one day and the next it's a little different. The first few chapters are kind of short, but I assure you around chapter 7-8, more of the plot arises from it. I have up to chapter 19 completed, and I intended originally to have over 40+.**

Silent Hill...a place that was meant to be a paradise. Tranquility. Serenity. The perfect place for a vacation. That is, until the ritual...after all that had gone wrong, it left the small town in a cursed and forsaken state. A demon homed town lined with blood and rust and hidden in ash. And overtime, a handful of people have wandered into the mist, and even fewer returned. The most well known accounts were of Harry Mason, the father searching for daughter Cheryl in the town's alternate school and amusement park, James Sunderland, widowed husband relearning his past. Heather Mason, unknowing about who she really is and stopping the curse placed upon her, and Henry Townshend, trying to escape from a cursed room. At least, those are the accounts for gamers...

...as they were for myself. Sadly, I needed to wait longer than most to be able to play. I never owned a PlayStation One, so Silent Hill One wasn't in my possession until the PS2, although I didn't even own one until the PS3 was in the works of coming to America. So, upon finally getting the platform, my first game purchases were Metal Gear Solid One and Two, Kingdom Hearts One, Jak and Daxter and the newest Final Fantasy at that time, though which one it was, I have forgotten, since I had lost track of the four Final Fantasies I own. It was on the manual of Metal Gear Solid Two where I first heard about Silent Hill, with an ad for the second in the series. And after doing a few months of hunting down both of the first two, I learned soon after that the last two were well in stores and for cheap. So, on buying all four within three months, the Silent Hill series was finally my own.

As with any video game, you play it in the beginning and are told the story through the eyes of the character you're playing as. For me, a very similar story was told four times. But I didn't want to be told the story from a movie, so I never went to see the film interpretation. I imagined it would ruin my view of a very good series. The plots, graphics and use of true horror was amazing. And I soon began to wonder...

What if there was a _REAL _Silent Hill?

When I told my friends about this idea, or should I say fear of mine, they told me I would end up one of the side characters. Y'know, like one of the ones who help out for a little while then get killed either by you or a monster. _Thanks guys,_ I thought. _If you come with me to Silent Hill, I hope Pyramid Head comes through and kills you._

Soon after managing to complete each game with a good or better ending to each, which anyone who has played would know it was difficult the first few times around, and advancing to more video games of my liking, the real Silent Hill idea became a bit more of a good story idea than a fear. And eventually, even that faded off in my mind.

One day in the middle of a summer break, and as I was beginning to get back into past games, I replayed through Silent Hill One. Harry Mason will always be my favorite hero, and so goes the idea that nothing is better than the original. I played the game straight through that entire day. And I finished with the best ending possible. I felt accomplished. I also felt unbelievably tired. I looked to my clock as it read 3:38 am. So I saved, shut down my loyal PS2, and fell into my bed. I didn't even bother on changing into pajamas, I just needed to sleep. I plugged my iPod's ear bud into my left ear and began listening to Room of Angel.

_You lie silent there before me...your tears, they mean nothing to me..._

I felt myself starting to fade out. I snuggled closer to my pillow as I got a bit colder.

_The wind howling at the window...the love you never gave...I give to you..._

I thought maybe since I had stayed up this late that my mind made my body feel odd things. I could've sworn the foot of my bed was shifting like waves on the water. My feet started to feel like they were bouncing just slightly.

_Really don't deserve it, but now, there's nothing you can do..._

Soon, the feeling went up through my legs. I clenched my fist and shifted, keeping my eyes firmly shut as my heart began to race.

_So sleep...in your only memory...of me, my dearest mother..._

Then, the feeling came up to my chest, making my eyes shoot open in fear. I figured if I saw there was nothing, the feeling would go away. But the feeling didn't go away...it built even stronger. My bed...it was almost completely gone. What was left was a deep, swirling, red and black pool. It looked and stank like blood. I screamed at the sight of it, as well as my body almost engulfed within it.

_Here's a lullaby to close your eyes...goodbye...it was always you that I despised..._

I grabbed at what was left of my bed, which wasn't much, just a pillow and an eighth of a mattress. I tried to pull myself out of it, but when I looked to my arm, it was as if I was looking straight through my skin to the veins. There were creeping vines from the liquid going through my arms, and controlling them.

_I don't feel enough for you to cry...here's a lullaby to close your eyes...goodbye..._

I tried to fight back the liquid, but as I gripped at my mattress, it forced my hand back open and even began to push me deeper into the hole. I screamed as loud as I can and tried to roll out of it, dragging onto the mattress as long as my hands would let me with the liquid controlling it. Soon, I felt my neck sinking through it, leading up to my face, filling my shouting mouth. I choked at it, and it seemed to want to fill me. All of the liquid rushed faster and faster into my mouth and nose. I felt it going into my lungs. My vision blurred with death before complete darkness from sinking completely in.

_Goodbye...__goodbye...__goodbye..._


	2. A Familiar Voice

I shot out of my bed drenched in sweat and tears dried on my cheeks. I believe I was shouting, too.

Slowly, my mind pieced together that my bed was complete, and there wasn't a drop of that blood red liquid anywhere in my room. As my panting breath steadied with my heartbeat, I relaxed my uncontrolled body. I brought a hand up to my eyes and rubbed them, trying to refocus on real life.

"Just...just a dream..." I sighed in great relief and reached for my glasses on the table next to my bed. On putting them on however, my mind went back to the fact I had played Silent Hill the night before. I began to panic again, pulling my knees to under my chin. "N-No...NO! That's how it always happens! T-The main character has a d-dream about coming close to d-dying! Then they wind up in S-Silent H-H-Hill!" My arms shook around my legs from the idea, the adrenaline of fear surging through. Then, through the fear, logic came back into my mind.

_That's just silly..._ Logic began to speak, reassuringly. _Think about it...you stay up late playing a horror video game, and expect to have a __**good**__ dream?_

My grip around my legs eased, as did the shaking from adrenaline. And even after another minute of relaxation, I began to laugh about it all.

"It was quite a dream..." I admitted to myself with a chuckle. "Didn't think I could dream like that...sounds like a good story, too. An advent gamer winds up in their game, and it turns out to be a dream." I sighed in thought and stood from my bed, beginning to get ready for the day. "Sounds overdone though...no one would read it now-a-days."

My days in summer vacation would usually consist of me relaxing for the majority of it. I work at home as an advertiser from my computer. The pay's enough for food and rent, with a little left on the side that I save, maybe for a new car. I live alone, which adds to my relaxation level. It's much better to work at home when you don't have anyone constantly breathing down your neck. It gets lonely sometimes, but then again, that's what the internet can be for.

I dressed in day clothes, made myself a mug of coffee and started up my computer. After doing a few minutes of searching and confirmation for my new article, I began to write about it. 'The Pros and Cons of Urban Living'. Not exactly the most exciting of topics, but hey, it pays for my life.

After writing for about a half hour or so, I began on my leisure websites. I felt a little disappointed when none of my friends were on. I needed to tell someone about this dream. I figured anyone would do, so I left a comment on my mainstream.

'Anyone interested in an insane dream story? Call me up.' Thinking back on it now, no one would have even called on such a ridiculous notion.

Stretching out my arms tiredly, I shut down my computer and proceeded to make myself some breakfast. One-eyed jacks with milk. Simplicity is the best. Once those were finished, I clicked on my T.V. and began to eat.

"...Huh?"

Or, at least I hit power. The television remained completely black. Maybe I left the PS2 on, but when I looked to it, it was well off. I stood from my eating and checked each of the connections. I ended up turning my television to the side and went for the power cord with my left hand.

_GZAAAAAAAT!_

I pulled my hand back suddenly and fell back from the shock, both from stun and the electricity. I looked to my hand and saw my index and middle finger were grazed with a line through the middle of both of them. They each began to ache and bleed.

"Ah...what? Did I short it or something?" I said through grit teeth as I began for the bathroom. I found wrapping bandages and disinfectant in my first-aid kit to carefully cleanse and bandage my fingers.

When I went back into my living room, the television, still turned on its side and power unplugged halfway, was on. There was static on the screen, and a loud hissing coming from it. I stared at it for a long time before going back around it to see the power cord. There were sparks coming from the outlet, so I quickly grabbed at the cord to unplug it fully.

But even without a power source, the static was still on the screen. Slowly, I began to see some sort of a figure on the screen through the snowy quality. The figure seemed to struggle under some sort of restraint. The figure looked young. And female.

"...addy...lp me...ere are..."


	3. Silent Sirens

My heart raced as I heard the scrambled voice on my television set. I knew what it was. I knew **who **it was. It was obvious, but I couldn't prove it to myself just from hearing it. I looked once again to my PS2, and it was still turned off, with no lights flashing at all. But the voice, as hard as it was to hear, couldn't be anyone else.

"...addy...elp m..."

It was her.

It was Cheryl. The daughter of Harry Mason trapped in Silent Hill. And from the very game I had completed the night before. But how was she speaking now? The television's power was cut and the PS2 was one-hundred percent turned off. And yet, there was the television, static and snow was all I saw and the voice of the frightened Cheryl was all I heard.

I backed away from my set and grabbed my remote control, pushing every button on it to try and get some sort of reaction. But it remained just the same, just as I assumed and worried it would. My mind began to numb out, along with my legs. In a fear, I tried everything I could think of to try and stop this from continuing. I pulled the television out of the entertainment system and unplugged every last wire from it. The inputs for the PS2 and cable, even the DVD player and the audio plugs came straight out. The television was essentially a box with a led screen now.

But the horrible static and sounds remained.

Still in a great fear, I ran into my bedroom just to try and escape from it so I could clear my head. I jumped onto my bed, pulling my knees up beneath me and falling to one side, shaking in horror over what was going on just feet away from me. I shut my eyes tightly, tears streaming through shaky sobs, trying to calm down.

Slowly, my mind began to numb a bit more. I started feeling sick to my stomach, but I couldn't bring myself to move an inch. Not from fear, however...

I couldn't move. At all.

I tried to make at least my head move just a little bit, but my entire body had become almost like stone. I thought it was due to the intense fear coursing through my veins that literally petrified me. But through it all, my eyes did shift. I opened them slowly and scanned through the room and down at my body.

This was where the true nightmare began.

What was actually coursing through my veins was not fear, though there was plenty of that and more to behold. My skin became almost transparent, and by what I can see, the black and red fluid from the dream the night before was through my body again. I could just barely see the tops of my hands and fingers, but the liquid was visible enough from how I was previously bent. I tried to scream, but even my jaws fixed and refused to open. I felt screams building in my lungs, unable to escape, just like myself. The liquid was not painful, just constricting and not exactly of the norm.

Through the fear of why the fluid was in my body, my mind numbed even farther. My vision swam and I felt myself in the midst of a faint. My body began to tingle, from the palms of my hands to the soles of my feet, all the way to the back of my neck. Was it the liquid or just the sheer terror I was in? Either way, I began to lose consciousness. The last sight that went through my mind was my bedroom wall.

It seemed to begin to rust and tear apart.


	4. The Fight With The Aroboar

My body went through a chill as my eyes popped open on their own. I could hear my heart beating out of my chest as I saw what had become of my bedroom. My body listened once again to my command, allowing me to sit upright on my bed. What I saw made me wish I couldn't move to see it.

My room was black with what seemed to be either rust or blood running up and down in a jagged meshed pattern. No, there was no pattern, it was just there, splattered everywhere. My curtains were ripped apart and lifeless. The corners of the room had dust, cobwebs, and sheer age, making them crackle apart. The floor seemed to want to break just from one step, even though I was on the first floor. And the air was thick and foreboding, with the stink of wither and death. It was as if I had left it for years in the span of just hours.

I felt my body shaking with fear and nerves, when I suddenly heard a loud and almost violent static. I looked to my door, remembering the television a while before. I didn't know what to do, so I remained on my bed. The static continued, but it seemed to be coming from inside of the bedroom. I looked around to see if I could pinpoint where it was coming from, when I saw my iPod on the table next to my bed.

It was locked in the off position and the headphones were coiled around it. I made sure there wasn't any music playing the day before. But that's where the noise was coming from. I reached over to it, as the static seemed to grow stronger. I grabbed for it and saw that it was indeed set to be off. However, when I held the ear-buds to my ear, the static was obvious.

Upon my very life, I know my heart had to have stopped.

In my line of vision, right through my bedroom door and in my hallway, was...something. Whatever it was could not have been human, animal, plant...anything. It was a pinkish white, as if there were a layer or two of skin missing from its twitching and seething body. It had three legs, or what appeared to be legs. They seemed more like bright pink tree stumps than legs. It had no definable face, just the legs, a lump above the legs for a body and a beak-like appendage on the side of the lump. A low growling sound was emitting from it, and its legs shifted it around so the beak end was facing me. It had no teeth, but it was sharp down its drooling edges.

As it moved, it seemed to rear back onto its one hind leg. The static on my iPod began to grow much louder. In my frightened state, I jumped from the static noise and tried to muzzle it. At that moment, the creature lunged forward for me, galloping and jumping onto my bed. I screamed once I felt its massive weight on me and fell back onto my bed, head dangling just off the edge. Its beak was snapping wildly over me, its two front legs making it just impossible for it to reach me. I tried pushing and punching the beak to get it off, but each time I would land a blow, it would snap at me again, giving me several deep cuts on my arms and hands. And the more I pushed, the more it would press down against me. I finally managed to shift away enough to make my body fall off of the bed, head first, away from the beast. I tried to stand up in enough time, but as I brought my hands beneath myself to push up, a sudden weight on my back made my body collapse once again. If it were just a bit heavier, each bone in my body probably would've broken from the impact.

I tried to fight it off once again, though it was much harder on me from lying on my stomach while it was on my back. Its beak was still just barely reaching the top of my head, the tips grazing my skull now and again. I thought if I had some sort of a weapon, I could fight it off enough for me to get up. I was right next to my bed, so I threw an arm underneath it, remembering I had a aluminum bat underneath it for defense against any possible intruder. This was about as good of time as any to use it. I searched frantically just from touch under the bed while the creature was still snapping and bending to get closer, until I finally found the handle of the bat. I whipped it from beneath my bed and slammed it onto the creature's beak as hard as I could from the angle I was in. He emitted a shrill cry and I saw bits of the beak fall next to me. I felt the weight shifting around on my back, then a sudden relief off my back and a loud thud next to me. Gathering my thoughts, I stood up quickly, using the bat to help me stand. I looked to the creature's still twitching, dying body.

The beak was cracked halfway up, with a thick blood coming through the cracks and where it had broken. Its three legs were still trying to push itself upright again. It was beginning to kick out as if to give a last resort attack. With each movement, more blood came from the broken beak. It was in a mild suffering fit, and I couldn't help but to feel sorry for the creature.

_I am the one who caused this,_ I thought. _But...it did attack me first...what more was I supposed to do, let it kill me?_ I readied my bat up once again, holding it with both hands in front of me. _Two go in, one comes out...or so it goes._ I continued to bring the bat up. It was now at eye level. I caught a glimpse of the blood that was stained on the bat in splotch patches. _All I can do now...is claim my victory and end this one's suffering. _I couldn't stand to witness it. I shut my eyes tightly and swung the bat up above my head, readying the attack. With every ounce of my strength, I threw the bat back down, and felt it make contact with the creature's tormented body. I heard the _thwack_ of the bat, the cry of the beast and the static quiet down a bit.

I opened my eyes to the 'dead' monster, the bat leaving an indentation of broken bones and organs. I pulled the bat away and held it to my side, looking down at the corpse. But I knew better. I knew if this was going to be me in Silent Hill, I had to do things properly, or it'll be my end. I took one step to the creature, readied my other leg above it, and stomped down hard onto its body. It was only then that the static on my iPod died along with the beast.

My head went back in a mild relief that was short lived. This was only the first demon out of what might be several more to come. They would all be five times as difficult as this and I needed to be prepared for what's to come. I took a glance through my blinds out through the window and saw just what I had expected.

"Yeah," I sighed. "That's not snow..."


	5. Possession and Resurrection

I stood there, contemplating everything that has happened so far. My room becoming the way it was...the tiny flakes of ash falling in the middle of a thick fog outside of my window...and the creature...lain dead on my floor. I stood over it, bat still in hand dangling to one side, looking to it with both pity and disgust. I also studied it to make sure I knew the creature's beak was its sweet spot, not so much for a kill, but at least enough damage to bring it down if only for a moment.

And I saw around the corpse of the creature was a deeply soaked in blood. The color of it matched the fluid that would run through my veins whenever I became overly frightened or stressed. This made me think deeper.

_Is this really going to be my fate?_ I wondered, grip tightening around my bat. _Were my friends right in assuming that before?_

I held my bat up again to eye level, looking to the blood stains splattered around the shining aluminum. I focused on a cleaner spot and saw my reflection, still blotched out by specks of blood. I looked to myself for a long moment, wondering just how long I would be able to last. This was just one beast after me and it took me that long to bring it down. I felt myself begin to tremor with what I thought was fright.

"I can't..." I began to whisper shakily to no one. "I know I can't...I'm far too weak just to take down one...what if three of them gang up on me? What if there's something stronger, which there always will be!" My whispering became shouts as I held the bat tightly with both hands, still shaking. "There are going to be more out there, and there are going to be BOSSES that I'm going to have to deal with on my own! I can't do this!" I brought the bat up in a readying swing towards the fog covered window, teeth clenched and tears streaming from my eyes. "THERE ARE NO HEALTH DRINKS IN THE REAL WORLD!"

In that instant, I swung the bat as hard as I could in a blind rage to my window, shattering it to pieces. I brought the bat back to my side, still clutching with both hands. Panting from my outburst, my head and shoulders fell and my back ached. I leaned against the bat for a little while until I gained strength enough to lift my head to my now open window.

By what I saw, it seemed like there was another one of those creatures outside. The figure was short and slow moving, almost like one of them. I couldn't see too well through the ashes and fog, but my heart raced just from the sight of the dark figure. But there was no high pitched static coming from my iPod, so was it a new creature already? Or...

Either way, I felt that, whatever it was, it had to be a threat to me. The muscles in my arms tightened and I wanted to prep the bat again for another attack, but for some reason...

My hands released the bat.

I looked down to my arms and saw it once again. Coursing through the veins in my arms and all the way down to my hands was the red/black liquid that looked like the blood from the creature. In fact, in my peripheral vision, it seemed like the blood from the beast had washed itself from my carpet. I cursed myself under my breath and tried to move my arms once again. This time, they were moving, but not to how I want them to.

They were moving up towards my neck, ever so slowly.

I looked down to my hands as they approached, and the liquid seemed to be moving much faster that the past two times. As the fluid coursed, my veins were pulsing from the pressure and looked almost to the point of exploding. I shut my eyes away from the sight, but it was then that I felt my hands rush up to my throat and grasp around it, beginning to squeeze as tight as the fluid made them. My eyes opened and bulged as I began to feel myself lose blood and oxygen. I tried to shout out, though it wouldn't have helped much, and all that I could manage was a raspy whimper. My legs shook and I began to circle around backwards in my room, tripping over the beast's corpse and banging into the wall next to the window. As I skid down and finally fell, my vision swam from the final ounce of life I had. I looked to the corpse and knew for sure I was following it.

As my eyes shut, there was a stepping sound next to my head. _Oh...great,_ My mind managed to say, still dying out. _N__ow...they...they're gonna...eat my...body..._

I felt something press against the back of my head, and though I knew it was my last moment, I couldn't help but savor the warmth of the touch. In fact, the warmth pulsed not just from my head, but straight down to my strangled neck and to the arms and hands that were strangling it. My hands twitched in their grip and, finally, released, allowing me to gasp weakly for air. And even with me being next to a rotting corpse, it was the sweetest air I had ever inhaled. But my mind still spun and not a moment after my second breath, I was out once again.

It took me about a half hour or so to regain my consciousness, breath and composure, when reality gave me a swift smack in the face. Or at least something did.

I was stunned awake from the pain in my cheek and pushed myself forward, eyes refocusing. I held one controlled hand to my head and looked to the side.

"Are you alright?" I hear to the other side.

Stunned from the sound, I shout out and fall off of my bed, landing right next to the corpse. Frightened from that as well, I jump up and back away, still screaming in shock. And upon seeing the ashes fall through my broken window, I fall back onto the floor and coil up, sobbing in amazing fear, knowing that none of what happened was a dream.

"Hey hey! Calm down!" The voice said, making me jump and grab at my bat. I whipped it up and held it like a sword above my body, pointing towards the voice.

"DON'T COME NEAR ME!" I shouted, looking to the voice. I held up the bat for a little while until my mind eased at the sight of...another human. Not just another human, but a familiar one. And one that was highly unexpected to me. "Y-...YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!"


	6. The Spirit in Brown

"Now now...no need to get hasty here..."

"No need? NO NEED? THIS IS THE PERFECT NEED! I KNOW YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!"

"Dead, huh? I see...alright then. Why don't you just call me...a spirit?"

I remained on the ground, bat still at the ready, at the walking, talking character everyone who has played the games knows to be dead. At this point, I knew it had to all be a dream, so I decided to go along with it. I smirked lightly and sighed, standing up with help from the bat as if it were a walking stick or cane. Shaking my head a bit, I grinned back to the 'spirit', taking a good look. The 'spirit' was a man, fully grown and dressed in a white shirt with a tan brown vest. His hair was a man's long bowl cut and his green eyes were behind round glasses. He had a smile that seemed to say 'Everything's ok' or 'I'm on your side', but I couldn't feel like he was for some reason.

"I know your name...it's Vincent," I finally brought myself to say.

There went the smile again. The Cheshire Cat smile of his sent a chill down my spine.

"That's right," he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Seems you know about me already."

"The last thing I know about you is that White Claudia stabbed you in the back!"

"Don't mention her name," Vincent hushed, holding a hand up to me. "I don't want to remember her at all..."

"Well I suggest you do! How is it that you're here?" I shouted, holding the bat up to him again.

"Like I said...you can call me by my name, or just call me a spirit." He sighed, the smile returning to his face. That look irritated me to no end, as if this whole thing was a joke to him.

"Well if you are a spirit...then there's no way in HELL THAT YOU'LL FEEL THIS!" I swung the bat up high and charged for him, coming down to his head. Just as quickly as myself, Vincent dodged to the right and grabbed the bat with both hands. I looked to him, stunned on how he could've managed that, then tried to pull the bat back from him. He shot me an icy cold look from over his glasses and held the bat tightly.

"I wouldn't go doing that again...at this point, I'm the only other human aside from yourself, am I wrong? Even you said that you can't go and do this on your own." He slid the bat from my hands and grabbed me firmly by my right shoulder. "And if it wasn't for me, you would've strangled yourself to death...or do I need to remind you of the curse you're under right now?"

As he held me, I felt the same warmth that stopped the liquid from chocking me on my shoulder and going down my arm. With the warmth, the red/black liquid shot through my arm and hand again...my hand lunged for my throat once more. But right as my fingertips made contact with my throat, Vincent's other hand released the aluminum bat and grabbed at the arm, the warming sensation flowing through it once more and clearing out the liquid. I looked to my arm for a moment, stunned, then looked back to him.

"H-How..."

Vincent's smile came back to his face and he let go of just my shoulder. He held a series of charms and crosses all on one set of prayer beads in front of my face.

"I have my good luck charms...maybe," he began. I tried to pull my arm out of his grasp, but he grasped me tighter, wrapping his free arm around my back and pulling me closer. He held me just inches away from his face. "I could be your good luck charm~" He grinned to me once again, pulling me even closer.

I was mad beyond belief. With my free left hand, I reached up and smacked him hard enough on the cheek that I sent his glasses flying to the other side of the room. He glowered and pushed me onto my bed, beginning to look for his glasses on the ground.

"You've changed, Vincent...you're not yourself," I tilted my head to him as he continued to search on hands and knees. "What, couldn't manage to get to Heaven? Or were you disappointed when you got there?"

"I was in Purgatory..." Vincent replied, still searching for his glasses. "I...had unfinished business and couldn't get to neither Heaven nor Hell, so I was never really dead...everything was just so dull. I needed to find simple ways just to entertain myself. I began to go insane...I couldn't deal with the loneliness anymore. I figured, even if I needed to endure another Silent Hill, I would take it, just to have a chance at human interaction again, and I finally got that chance. After my said 'punishment', apparently, there was another curse out that meant my freedom and my aid. I thought I would find Heather again, but instead, I was called here for some reason. Then I heard you wailing on about how you can't deal with this. Smashing out your window made it easier for me to get in...just in time too, I'd say." Vincent finished and sighed, sitting down onto the floor and looking to me. "Would you mind? I can't find my glasses at all here."

I looked to him for a long moment, letting his explanation sink in. Without a word, I stood up, walked across from him, found his glasses with ease and picked them up. As I brought them back to him, I sighed and held them down.

"Alright, I heard what you had to say," As he reached for his glasses, I pulled them back up. "I'm not gonna believe a word of it...until you prove it to me. And you're going to do so by helping me out of this curse and out of here. I'm not fond of the idea of my apartment becoming the new Silent Hill. So if you and I can change this all back to normal, then I'll believe you. But for now," I held the glasses back down. "You're just another human fighting through it."

He took the glasses from my hand and put them back on, standing back up.

"I understand. It's good that you're careful on those you trust. I will try my best to gain yours," Vincent stated, holding a hand to me. "Now, let's get a little more prepared."

I looked down to his hand and reached to shake it, when he pulled it back, smile returning to his face.

"Now hang on, I never got your name." Vincent smirked, keeping his hand to his side. I glared at his smile once more and looked away.

"It's not that important for you to know. When I can trust you, I'll tell you my real name. For now, just call me what you will."

He sighed with the smug grin on his face and ran his hand through his hair. "Ok, I'll call you...Cathy. And when you see fit, prove me wrong with your real name."

He held his hand out once more and I shook it with a slight hint of reluctance. However, upon releasing it, I heard a familiar static coming from my iPod.

"What's with that?" He asked before looking over to it. I sighed a little and held the bat over my shoulder.

"The end of this 'cutscene', I guess..."


	7. The Marcula and The Curse

**AN: Like I said on the first chapter, this is around where the plot kicks in for the story and more of the Silent Hill aspect arises. Also, this was posted all on my old deviantArt account, Azuanta. I'm not entirely sure on how to prove that it's in fact me, but this story is in fact my own, although all the disclaimer precautions apply where I do not own Silent Hill or its characters.**

"There's another one," I looked to my iPod slowly, knowing it bodes terribly at this point.

"There are probably going to be more than one," Vincent said, looking to the iPod as well. "I'm not much of one to fight."

"Yeah, I know!" I snapped back at him. "You always hated getting all hot and sweaty!"

"It's just who I am," he shrugged, hands raised to shoulder level. "You don't have to mock me that way..."

"Whatever," I held my bat over one shoulder and started out my bedroom, grabbing my iPod on the way as it got a bit louder. "Either way, you're helping me through this, got it?"

"Right behind you." Vincent said with that damn grin again. I stood looking to him for a moment, then tightened my grip around my bat and started through the door.

As I began out slowly, I peeked around the side of my door just slightly enough to see what was waiting. Outside, there were two more of those three-legged creatures, with one new one behind them. From what I saw, it was human-like, tall, but without a head. It seemed to be wrapped in tight chains, and it held a mace in each hand, swinging them both around in a figure eight pattern. And its legs and feet were completely in reverse, making its walk look like that of an ostrich.

I almost began to laugh at the sight of the human-like creature, until I took a closer look at the chains around its body and the two maces. They all seemed to be dripping with the red/black liquid that had been plaguing me since this whole thing began. I readied my bat to a swing, but felt almost hesitant on charging at them. They all had this kind of fluid...and I think I somehow absorbed the one from the first three-legger I killed. What would happen to me if I absorb these three after I kill them? I couldn't even deal with what happened with the amount I had in me already.

Turning back around to Vincent, I edged him over to prepare to charge out. He walked up behind me slowly and looked around carefully as well.

"It seems like we have our work cut out for us..." He whispered, backing off slightly for what I thought was to let me have the head start.

"Yeah, but...I don't really know about killing them," I said, looking back to him worriedly.

"Don't worry so much," He said lightheartedly. "Remember, if anything happens, I have these to help you." Vincent held his prayer beads and charms up again.

"Alright..." I said, still unsure about his word. I readied myself once more, inhaled deeply and jumped out of my room.

_SLAM!_

My eyes widened to the sound and I turned to see my bedroom door shut tightly behind me. I reached over with one hand and tried my best to open it, but it remained firmly locked. That son-of-a-bitch...

"VINCENT! VINCENT, YOU BASTARD!" I shouted into my room, slamming my body against the door to try and open it. "I KNEW I COULDN'T TRUST YOU!"

"I'll know when you'll need my help, but I told you...I'm not one for fighting those things," Vincent replied, obviously backed farther into my room.

"YOU DAMN COWARD!" I kicked at the door, trying once again to open it.

Through the noises of fighting with Vincent and the door, the iPod's static grew even louder. I looked over to the three creatures, who were all facing towards me at this point. I grasped my bat tighter and backed away a little bit, staring towards the beasts.

"I guess I have no other choice..." I muttered, looking back to the door once more. "You're gonna be next, Vincent."

With every ounce of my being, I charged for the three, aiming for the larger, human-like creature. I swung my bat at its torso, hitting it square in its stomach. It let out a deep growl somehow with its lack of head. I readied the bat up to hit it between its shoulders, when one of the three-legged things pounced on my knees, knocking me down onto the floor. I tried to swing up to hit its beak, when the human-like beast bent down with its backwards knees and readied up one of its maces. Before it managed to bring it down upon me, I swung my bat at its right leg, toppling it over to my level. I slammed down the bat to its body repeatedly, preventing it from standing back up, while at the same time tried to ward off the two three-legged beasts. Once I finished with the human-like one, I swung the bat back to the one on top of me, hitting him hard enough to fall off of me. I struggled to get back up onto my feet, but once I did, I smashed the bat at the first one's beak, beating it until it was motionless. With a final stomp to both the one three-legged creature and the human-like one, I turned to the second three-legger.

I readied up my bat, when I felt a slicing pain across the calf of my leg. Without even seeing it charge, the living beast bit down onto my leg with its beak, biting well through the skin and flesh. I screamed out and fell from the pain through my leg, looking to the beast as it continued to mash its beak deeper and deeper. Blood from the wounds began to stream into and out of the beak, and I started feeling the numb of agony. I grabbed my bat weakly and held it above its head, trying to beat it off. But even I could tell at the time that it was hardly doing any damage. I continued to hit it, but each time I did, I could feel it going deeper into my leg. The pain was indescribable...I felt every ounce of my strength leave my body with each drop of blood that leaked through my leg. I fell back onto the ground and could barely see towards my bedroom door. I tried calling out as a last resort to Vincent, though I knew it would fall upon deaf ears.

"V-...Vin-...cent y-..." I whispered out weakly. "You...n-...no g-...go-...good..." I felt myself dying. I knew it wasn't a dream. This was my fate.

I saw down towards my leg that it was almost completely white with blood loss. The creature's beak was still clutched around the wound. I couldn't move to stop it now. I knew I was going to die. My head fell back onto the ground and I released myself from anything. I accepted my death and slowed my breathing.

"So...you're dying. Why don't you let your spirit go for a while?"

The familiar warmth shot through my body almost at a high scaled rate. My eyes shot open, and all I saw was red. My body wavered on the ground and pushed itself up, turning for the beast, still gnawing on my leg. My hands reached for the beast's beak, black and red fluid beating at a high rate. They grabbed at both jaws of the beak by its sharp tips, pulling them apart. My arms surged with strength, and with one swift motion, snapped both the jaws back and broke them apart. The creature's broken mouth now bleed the thick red liquid as it fell to the side, still twitching with life. My hands formed dark red fists and lifted high above the beast, bashing down back and forth onto it until all movement stopped.

There I was, surrounded by death and coming close to my own. My entire body was a deep blood red and surrounded by the blood from the creatures. And from each of the creatures, the blood began to get absorbed through my leg wound. I felt my veins refilling and pulsing with the blood of the three I had just taken the lives of. And slowly, the blood began to rejuvenate the space within the gash, healing it over to almost completely nothing.

As the strength returned, the color in my body changed back to normal. My vision returned to a normal coloring, and my mind went back into control. I came so close to death...it had to have been the liquid that saved me for some reason. Perhaps it had a purpose for me to live just a little bit longer...but then, why was it trying to kill me before?

I looked to my leg and shifted it, all pain seeming to escape with it healing. I struggled to stand, when I felt a lifting in my underarms, pulling me up easier.

"GYAH!" I grabbed my bat and spun around, spotting Vincent grabbing at it again before it made contact.

"What now?" He smirked lightly. "Ticklish jumper or something?"

"You no good bastard..." I seethed, trying to pull the bat away again. "WHY DID YOU LOCK YOURSELF IN MY ROOM, ESPECIALLY WHEN I NEEDED YOU MOST?"

"Needed me? You seemed to do just fine here." He looked around me, down to the corpses of the beasts. "I doubt you really need my assistance with how you just handled yourself."

"It was because I was CLOSE TO DYING! And something took over for me, I don't know, it's this DAMN CURSE I'm under! It's keeping me alive!"

"Well then, there's your solution. You won't die, yet," He grinned, easing up on my bat. "But I suggest you get a better weapon than this. It's good for those beaked things, but other than that, it's useless for what you'll be facing soon."

"H-How the hell do you know?"

"Well, we both have some experience with Silent Hill, don't we now? Or else you wouldn't have known me," His eyes narrowed to me, as if remembering something. "Wait...how exactly DO you know of me?"

"That's far from important right now..." I eased up as well, bat falling to my side. "Let's just get the hell out of here..." I started down the hallway towards my apartment's exit, but turned and walked back to Vincent, grabbing him firmly by the hand. "You're coming with me."

His eyes widened a bit and he looked down to my hand. "Well, of course I was going to...getting a little bit forward, aren't you? I didn't think you li- AHHHHH!"

My grip around his hand tightened from my irritation and I pulled him to eye level.

"Shut the fuck up now. We're leaving."


	8. By Any Other Name

**AN: After this chapter, I'm gonna take a break from uploading so many at once. I want to give people a chance to be able to read and enjoy them, as well as catch up to the point that I left off at. I'll probably go to uploading a chapter once or twice a week. If it slows a little after chapter 19, I'm sorry, that was as far as I wrote 2 years ago and I want to rewrite some of the chapters I had in the works.**

Still clutching onto Vincent's hand, I led him out my apartment's door and main entrance. Right upon opening the door leading outside...

It was completely clear.

The after-effects of whatever happened to me must have been enough to bring us both back to the normal world. But I knew it probably wouldn't last for too long. Before I left, I made sure to bring my iPod, bat and keys with me, three things that I know to be vital throughout any Silent Hill game. I wish I had some sort of health drink, instead of having to resort to my curse to heal me once I'm close to death. I knew the first time left me unharmed, but the more it happened, I'm sure the more would leave me either weaker or less myself.

I stood in my doorway, trying to think of what we needed to do now. I looked to my bat, knowing my first actual requirement was to find a stronger weapon...somewhere. There isn't exactly a weapon shop anywhere in this town, and the closest thing to it would be a hunting goods store in a mall a mile north that sells mostly bows and arrows, and I think some paintball guns. But those were the only options there, since hardly anyone has any reason on owning a gun aside from being a police officer. The police station was my second idea, though further away, since there more than likely wouldn't be anyone there right now, knowing my town is now the new Silent Hill. It's just me and this smug asshole.

"There's a hunting shop a mile from here and a police station a little farther off from there. We'll work with what's at the shop for now, then we'll pick up a couple of handguns at the station, maybe a shotgun too," I said, starting off and making sure Vincent was following. "It's not too long of a walk from here, but where in the shopping mall it is, I can't really remember."

"Well, maybe I should just wait here for when you come back, don't you think?" Vincent asked, struggling slightly to keep up with my hurried pace. I shot him a look of 'DON'T GO THERE', and he looked away. "N-Never mind...I'll go with you."

"That's better," I growled and continued on, remaining silent for a moment, then starting up again. "Y'know, Vincent, I think I liked you better when you were a God worshiping lunatic. What exactly happened to make you change your mind?"

"Don't you know that already?" Vincent replied. "I told you, I was trapped in Limbo and was never really dead, just in a prolonged and lonely state. I tried looking to God for help, I did. But...it never helped with my suffering. I was stuck there for what felt like years."

"But isn't Limbo supposed to be like that until your actual judgment? I always thought it was the in-between of Heaven and Hell, so God had to have been involved." I asked, truthfully knowing nothing about religion.

"That's what I thought, too. But it wasn't until I stopped praying and, in truth believing, that things began to look up for me. I saw the area for what it was, not what God meant it to be for me."

"What do you think it was meant to be?" I asked, wondering where he was going with this.

"Some sort of punishment. I hate being alone, no matter what others think." Vincent said, mood beginning to change for him as we continued to walk through the complex. "People see me and think I push them away, just because I want my quiet sometimes...it's when it's too quiet that I begin to get a little 's what happened. I wanted out, just to hear the voice of another human being, to see their face," Vincent slowed to a stop while holding my hand, making me stop as well. "To feel their skin..." He looked down to my hand and so did I. In anger, I snapped my hand away from his and grabbed his sleeve, continuing to walk. He sighed and sped up to stand in front of me, stopping me by my shoulders.

"What, Vincent?" I growled and tried to pull away, desperate to get the weapons I needed. "We don't have time for this!"

"What is it about me that you don't find appealing?" He started, keeping a hold on my shoulders. "I mean, I may not be one of the best looking guys on earth, but at least treat me like a human being."

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact you abandoned me when I almost died from those damn creatures, you talk about this whole situation as if it were one big JOKE, you don't care AT ALL about what's happening to me and, above all other things, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN DEAD AND BURIED LONG AGO! Now if you don't MIND, we need to find this weapon shop before I almost lose my OTHER LEG!"

I smacked his hands away and stormed off, not caring whether or not he follows me. All I cared about was getting through this nightmare alive, and nothing else was going to get in my way of this.

"Wait," I heard Vincent behind me as I continued. I refused to turn around, and I heard him running up and saw him in my peripheral vision. I sighed and turned to him, becoming more and more irritated than before.

"What, Vincent. WHAT NOW?" I shouted, trying to get the point across that I was done with him.

"Like I said," Vincent replied with what seemed to be guilt on his voice. "Trust me, don't trust me...I don't care. It's just beneficial you know that I'm probably the only human willing to help you, although my methods might seem a bit crass, you need to know...I didn't abandon you back there. I wanted to see it,"

"It? What is it? What is the 'it' you wanted to see?"

"Your curse...your power. I've never seen such tremendous strength like that before in my life...or death. It may be a curse to you, the curse you want gone from your body." He paused for a moment, looking away from me and hands raised. "I just thought I could try and help you control it, so you can use it when you really need to, and it wouldn't backfire. I could be able to, if you just trusted me a little more."

I looked to him for a while, debating on what exactly I wanted to do. I looked to my hands, thinking of what it would be like if I can manage to control whatever it was that was flowing through my veins. The power that I had against that beast, although I couldn't use it until my body was under that much stress. I wondered how it would be otherwise...the things I could do with it.

"Rose," I muttered lightly.

"Huh?"

"That's my real name...Rose." I looked back to him, turned around and continued on, allowing him to follow. "Don't forget it, ok?"

"I won't." Vincent hurried behind me. I could feel that smirk from behind me and restrained the urge to thwak him with my bat again.


	9. Crypto's Code

There was hardly much spoken after I revealed my real name to Vincent until we reached the shopping mall. Just as I had imagined, there were no cars out front, no one walking in or out, not even a few dim lights inside to show open stores. My town had literally become another Silent Hill. Either that or, what I continued to try and tell myself, this was just one on-going nightmare, where my town was deserted and cursed. I was just glad that, for now, we were in the normal part of my nightmare. But we knew it wouldn't last long, so we needed to find that hunting goods store and gather weapons fast.

I approached the front entrance of the mall and stood in front of the doors for a moment, expecting the automatic doors to open on their own. But no matter how long I waited, they would not budge, not even sound that they were about to open. Vincent walked up behind me and looked to the doors.

"What are you waiting for?" Vincent asked, going to the doors to try and push them open.

"They're automatic..." I said. "They're supposed to open right when I stand close to them." I tried jumping up and down to alert the sensors, but nothing happened. I stopped and sighed, shaking my head and walking away from the doors. "I knew it...nothing's working..." I tightened the grip around my bat thinking of trying to smash out the glass in the doors, but knew that more than likely wouldn't work and turned back to Vincent. "We're going to have to find another way in..."

"Are there any other entrances?" Vincent asked, walking up behind me as I began around to the other side of the mall.

"Most of the doors for customers are automatic, so I imagine none of them will work. But there's one back here for employees that only opens with a key-code. A friend of mine used to work here, and she told me how to figure out the combination..." I stopped briefly to think, but brief was not how long it took me to think.

"How's that?"

"Um...I know it has...something to do with the name of the mall and the buttons are letters, not numbers, but it's not that obvious." I said, then continued walking. "Or something like that. I never really had any reason to visit through the door. I would always just come in through the regular entrances...never thought that not using it would be a bad idea in the future."

We reached the employee entrance, and right away, I knew this wouldn't be easy. I looked to the handle of the door and saw the button system of pictures. There were nine buttons to represent nine numbers, but the buttons were a random system of letters.

|A||B||N|  
|X||Z||H|  
|D||V||G|

_Dammit..._ I thought while looking at the pin system. _None of these letters even match the mall's name..._

"What's the name of this mall?"

I was shot out of my thoughts by Vincent's question.

"Huh?"

"The name. You said it had something to do with the code."

"Uhm...yeah." I remembered. "Crypto's. When I was younger, I thought it was Superman's store or something. Until I learned the spelling was different."

"Crypto's, huh..." Vincent muttered, then began for the door. "Let me take a look at this real quick."

I let him by and he bent over to the keypad. "Ha," He laughed suddenly, then stood up straight to me. "This thing's easy!"

"What?" I looked down to the keypad once again, not seeing what he meant.

"This is just one of your run-of-the-mill puzzles!" Vincent smiled.

My eyes shut and I literally felt an aura doom fall around me. The one thing I absolutely hated about every Silent Hill game was the amount of puzzles that needed to be done. Even on replays and easy mode, I wound up stuck most of the time. Why puzzles...why?

"A...puzzle..." I muttered. "Maybe I should just try slamming in the doors on the other side."

"What, you can't figure this out?" Vincent asked, his smirk coming through with his voice. That damn smart ass already had the puzzle figured out, and wanted nothing more but to gloat about it. "Seems like you need my help, don't'cha?"

My eyes tightened shut and my free hand formed a fist, while my other was gripping the bat so much it began to dent. Out of every restraint I had, my head slowly nodded to imply a 'yes'.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'." Vincent grinned and walked back to the door.

_Yeah..._ I thought, resisting the urge to swing once again. _That was a 'yes', genius..._

"If you look here, you'll see it's just a bunch of letters, right?" He began as if he was talking to a four year old, making resisting that much harder. "Well, under here, there's a little code of two rows of letters." My mind calmed enough to stand next to him and look. Indeed, etched in the door was two tiny rows of letters, one above the other. The top row was in alphabetical order, where the bottom was randomized.

Z  
M

"This is the answer. It's a Cryptogram."

I looked to him for a moment, wondering how he was able to conceive all of this just by looking at the door. Then as I thought of it, I felt that much more idiotic. Cryptograms are completely elementary, as long as you have the right code.

"Thanks," I said without any actual gratitude to be sure he knew I was irritated. "I'll take care of it from here."

I took a careful look at the combination of the random letters and found the letters to 'Cryptos'. The combination came to me as ' Z'. And after punching it in wrong three times and hearing more of it from Vincent, I typed it correctly and managed to open the door.

"You happy?" I growled to Vincent.

"Well, you were the one who chose to go through here~" he smirked once more before letting himself in. I began in after him angrily, but stopped, knowing better than to leave without that code. I had a gut feeling that it would be coming back for me to solve.

Inside of the employee area was a small, white table with three chairs, a refrigerator, a sink, some counters and a small television set. The very basic essentials for a break, but nothing more. On the table, I saw a cup of sharpies and grabbed one of them, hurrying back outside so Vincent would not be waiting long. I took a close look to the door, rolled up my left sleeve and scribbled the code on my forearm.

"I doubt the blood in me now will succumb to ink poisoning..." I said after finishing the code. I stepped back in and looked over to begin walking through the mall with Vincent. But as the door shut behind me, the light from outside became sealed off, revealing just how dark it was inside. And worse, Vincent was nowhere in the employee lounge.

He left me again.

He left me right when I felt I could trust him.

My grip around the bat increased further and I held it with both hands once again. I felt my body seething with anger, and in a blind rage, I swung. I swung at anything that would break, just to relieve what was building inside of me. I smashed it hard against the television, breaking it instantly. I hit the table, indenting it and sending the other pens flying. I bashed the faucet off of the sink, sending a spray of water upwards. I continued through this rage, trying to remove the frustration of how I could ever think of trusting a smarmy, evil, no-good, smart-ass bastard like Vincent.

At this point, I didn't care. I didn't care whether or not he gets any weapons he needs. I didn't care if he got hurt or killed by any of those demons. I didn't care about him at all, because it was obvious he never cared about me. I just needed to smash anything I could.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Vincent shouted with a light glowing in my eyes. "Are you under your curse again or something?"

My eyes narrowed to the light and I held my hand to it, seeing that it was indeed Vincent. He held a clip flashlight in one hand and slowly approached me with his prayer beads in the other.

"What...WHERE DID YOU GO?" I shouted to him, readying the bat once again.

"Y'know, I'm really getting sick of that bat...you need a better weapon. I just thought I saw something glowing in the bathroom over there..." He pointed over his shoulder to an open bathroom door a few yards away. "And I found this. Thought it would come in handy around here now."

I stared angrily at him for a solid minute, then rushed over to him, snagged the flashlight from him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pulling him close to my face.

"If you ever...EVER walk away from me without letting me know again...you're on your own here." I growled deeply, trying to stay as calm as possible while still getting the point across.

"Alright! Alright!" Vincent replied nervously, holding his hands up. "J-Just please...calm down...I'm sorry, ok?"

I let him go harshly and gripped onto his sleeve after clipping the flashlight to my shirt. With him firmly in one hand and my bat in the other, I began through the abandoned shopping mall, searching for the hunting goods store.

**AN: I know I never asked for this in previous chapters of my work, but it would be greatly appreciated if you can leave a review if you liked the story or have a particular critique on it. I'm just tired of seeing all these awful stories get about 50+ reviews where the hard work I'd put into mine only gets 1 or 2 here and there.**


	10. Couples

"Alright, last I remember, the shop is somewhere on the second floor in here. And since we came in through the back, we have to go to the very front of the mall before we find any stairs."

"W-Well, ok, but...d-do you have to be so fast?!" Vincent requested, struggling to keep up as I pretty much dragged him by his sleeve through the mall.

"If I let you go again, I know you'll just abandon me."

"I n-never abandoned you! I g-got you th-the flashl-light, didn't I?"

"Without informing me ahead of time, hence the abandonment!" I seethed through grit teeth, grip around bat tightening with my hand beginning to sweat from the tension.

"Well I'm s-sorry I didn't know y-you were the type that r-required constant m-monitoring!"

"THAT'S IT!" I stopped dead mid-step, swerved around towards him and swung the bat around with my body's momentum, aiming directly for his head. But, still in my grasp, Vincent managed to dodge underneath the bat, and my body continued to twirl around. With the continued momentum, the bat slid from my grasp and flew far across the mall, shattering loudly into something in the distance. My body kept the spin, and from my grasp, Vincent's arm flew around my stomach. And through all of this, we both lost our footing in the almost clumsy ballet. Trying to maintain, I released my grasp from him and tried to stand back up, only to wind up facing him on the way down.

We each fell with a hard thud on the ground, myself on top of Vincent. My mind took a moment to realize what had happened, and I cursed myself repeatedly, mostly for losing my only weapon. I began to try to push myself back up, head buzzing from the loss of equilibrium. As I pushed off of him, the flashlight clipped on my shirt shined onto his face. He was looking upwards, slightly dazed from rushing at first then winding up on the ground, after coming close to getting his head knocked off.

It was the first real time that I had taken a good look at his face. Most of the time, I had tried to ignore him, rush him or avoid his Cheshire smile. But naturally, I had never actually even looked him in the eye before. Something shot inside of me, and I couldn't help but continue to memorize that look. I was even able to feel my face filling with more blood than usual, though there was no sign of the curse I was under.

Soon after, his face contorted with pain, and he began to groan out for me to get off of him.

"Please...m-my back...the stab wound st-still hurts me..."

I snapped out of my sudden infatuation and pushed off of him completely. I stood up above him, not offering any help right now. I removed the flashlight from my shirt and held it up to shine better around the mall. I tried to see if I would be able to find the bat, though from my judgment, it sounded like it was quite a ways off. I heard Vincent struggle to stand behind me, and I avoided his glance once again, though I felt it burning holes into the back of my head.

"What's up with you, honestly?" He began with what I hoped he wouldn't. "You're always either trying to get rid of me or trying to find me, and either way, you're furious at me. What exactly is it that you want from me?"

I remained silent, trying myself to think of the right answer.

"I...I just want help out of here," I started, hands shaking. "I don't know why this is happening to me...and I just want it to end...but...it seems like you're only interested in making it more difficult for me..."

"'More difficult'?" He repeated, beginning for me. "I helped you out of your curse...I helped you get in here...and I helped you with that flashlight...I think I've been making things easier for you, don't you agree?"

I couldn't help but agree with him on that, but I didn't want to say yes or no. I turned to him and merely nodded, knowing that he'll get the picture.

"And I'll be more careful on what I say. I know I can run my mouth often," he said, the smile coming through his voice once again. I looked to him and couldn't help but glare.

"Let's just get to the shop already. We don't have the bat anymore," I began to the direction of the stairs.

"You LOST your only weapon?!"

"Well if you hadn't dodged, we would still have it!"

"It's not my fault and you know it!"

"God, shut UP already! I thought you said you'll be more careful with your words!"

"You're the one that's easily insulted!"

We continued with the useless bickering until we finally reached the hunting goods store...

* * *

Upon finally reaching the store, both Vincent and myself saw that there was a series of busted windows, shelves in disarray and flickering fluorescent lights. I looked to him, questioningly about what had gone on here. Vincent sighed and held his hand to his chin, both thinking and knowing at the same time. An odd combination, but that's just the expression he had.

"I see," Vincent sighed.

"What? What do you see?" I asked him, holding the flashlight up towards the broken windows.

"We need to be careful...there's...something here..."

"S-...Something?" I asked, nerves beginning to build. "But...I thought we were in the normal, not-demonic possessed area...we walked all the way here just fine..."

"I thought so too...but I think we've shifted back. It's so dark in here, we couldn't even tell." Vincent said with almost no expression of his own.

I began to tense up. Every noise either of us made built my nerves that much more. I scanned the walls with the flashlight and saw that they were indeed rusted and bloodstained, just like how my apartment was. My shaking was visible on the light beam from the flashlight, and Vincent took note.

"Well at least we have a way in now, so you should be able to gather some weapons." Vincent said. I could tell he was trying to calm me down, so I nodded agreeing, clipping the flashlight back to my shirt. "I'll keep a look-out around here. Be quick about it, and grab something you think I could use."

I looked to Vincent, surprised that he would be willing to bear a weapon on his own decision. I thought for sure that I would have to try and force him to pull a trigger on a simple water gun. I smiled and nodded as I hopped up onto the ledge of a busted window. I couldn't think of just what made him agree to help me this much, but whatever it was, I wanted to take full advantage of it.

The inside of the hunting goods store was as expected. A series of taxidermy animals, mostly deer heads and small animals like foxes and raccoons, were displayed proudly amongst the shelves of scents, stands and feeds. All of the guns, pistols and rifles on the racks were display purposes only and required several keys and codes just to remove one from the stand. A customer would put in an order for a choice gun and provide the proper information, then receive it in the mail within a week. They would then have to return to the store for ammo. The only sensible weapons that could be accessed were crossbows with the bolts remaining behind a thick sheet of glass.

I picked up a lightweight crossbow from the selection of elaborate choices. I would need something I could aim quickly and load effectively. The next step was to actually acquire the bolts needed to fire. I walked up to the display of paintball rifles, airsoft guns, ammo, arrows and bolts, imagining once I could get the bolts I would grab two airsoft guns as well, knowing they won't kill but at least do some damage and maybe stunning. It would also be a good enough weapon to give to Father Vincent, after a little direction first. I looked to the glass surrounding the required essentials, thinking the only way to access them was to destroy the glass. An alarm would sound obviously, which got me nervous.

_It might alert whatever it is Vincent was talking about... _I thought for a moment, then sighed and looked down the length of the stand. Once my eyes reached the very end of the stand, I saw there was a little red light blinking on the opposite side from where I was standing. I decided to investigate this. I hopped over the stand and approached the light. It was in the bottom center of some sort of square device that seemed to have a few buttons on it.

My head throbbed for a slight moment. I knew what this was, even before I removed the flashlight to hold it close to see it better. And there was a familiar sight. A 9 button security device with letters instead of numbers. Almost exactly like the one on the entrance, however this one had different letters on it.

|C||N||B|  
|S||V||H|  
|E||X||O|

I sighed, looking down to my forearm and seeing that the letters were still visible but beginning to fade just a little bit, probably from sweating. I matched them together with the letters on the keycode, but it didn't seem to come out to the name of the mall, or even the name of the store. I looked back and forth from the device to my arm, trying to come up with something. There wasn't a single thing I could come up with. I tried looking around the device, when a white corner of a piece of paper caught my eye. It was tucked tightly behind the seam of the device and the wall side of the display case. I wiggled it out of the crack carefully as not to tear it. Once I managed to get it out in one piece, I saw it was folded thickly. Once I unfolded it completely, the paper was full sized 8 1/2 x 11 inches. It seemed to have been folded that way for so long that the creases darkened out the page with age and cracks through the paper. On very small print in the center of the paper read a five sentence story, then a quick description on the bottom.

There once was a fierce beauty who was mine and mine alone.  
Running through my mind and heart, she was golden.  
Until that day she ran something else through both.  
Calling upon my strength, I had to stop her before she stopped me.  
Yes, I killed her, but she was already dead long before.

_A tragic story of a murderous couple. One could see this was doomed from the start. However, the start of each event may have been the solution long since foretold. One could have prevented this end by just paying close attention._


	11. Purgatory's Guard Dog

I read and reread the poem about a good five times, looking back and forth from the code on my arm to the buttons on the security system. It seemed almost tormentingly simple, and I didn't want to go back to Father Vincent to try to figure it out. I looked to the bottom passage on the paper once again, beginning to think of something.

There once was a fierce beauty who was mine and mine alone.  
Running through my mind and heart, she was golden.  
Until that day she ran something else through both.  
Calling upon my strength, I had to stop her before she stopped me.  
Yes, I killed her, but she was already dead long before.

_A tragic story of a murderous couple. One could see this was doomed from the start. However, the start of each event may have been the solution long since foretold. One could have prevented this end by just paying close attention._

"Maybe," I whispered to myself, then skimmed at the story quickly. I ran my eyes straight down the first letter of each line. "'One could see this was doomed from the start. T. R. U. C. Y." Trucy! The name of the woman mentioned in the story. I looked to my arm and found the five letters on the top row, then the letters on the bottom, which came out to be H, X, S, N, and V. "A match!" I said, realizing the five coded letters matched to five of the buttons on the security code. I smiled genuinely for the first time since this whole thing started, punching in the buttons proudly.

_BEEEEEEEEEEP_

The red light on the device turned green. I looked to see the handle on the glass plated countertop bounce up, unlocking. I pulled it open and saw the series of ammunition boxes, paintball and airsoft guns and, above all, bolts for my acquired crossbow. I gathered what I needed to and tried not to get over packed. And before doing anything else, I took a couple extra bolts and took aim, pointing towards a few animals. I wanted to get in some practice with it before going all out.

I skimmed up and down, aiming carefully for the side of a stuffed raccoon. I pulled the bolt back on the string, inhaled deeply and released, keeping a strong hold on the bow to maintain the aim. However, the bolt whizzed above the raccoon and bounded against the wooden wall behind it. I sighed and turned for my next target, a little ways away. There was a deer head mounted on the wall, so I aimed carefully for its left eye. I shot for it, but it hit the deer in the jowl instead. A hit, but not what I wanted.

I wanted to get at least one more shot in. I hopped back over the counter I was behind and backed up for the entrance, facing the inside of the building. I continued to back up slowly, looking around for my next target, when I finally found what looked like the wing of a large, red bat. Almost fascinated by it, I stopped just to look at it for a moment. Then, I took aim for the bone connecting the webbing of the wing to the arm-like appendage. I smiled and inhaled deeply, pulling the bow string back, pausing with deep silence and released.

"Yes!" I whispered loudly to myself, happy to have finally hit my intended target. I saw the wing was now possibly nailed into the wall. I smirked and nodded happily, saving what was left of my bolts and hanging the bow on my shoulder.

As I began walking out, I felt a familiar buzz in the back of my head. The odd feeling that came over me before that cursed liquid began to pulse through my veins. Something made me turn around. Perhaps the fact that the large wing I had just shot was now gushing a bit of blood from the point where I shot it. Along with that, there was a deep growling coming from the left of it. I was well in enough control of my body, but for how long I didn't know. At least long enough to turn back around quickly and head for the exit of the store.

"Run! RUN!" I shouted, spotting Father Vincent in my vision. I grabbed the airsoft gun in my pocket and slapped it into his extended and confused hand before grabbing him by the vest and pulling him away.

"What?! What happened?" Vincent exclaimed as he was being dragged from the hunting goods store.

"A BOSS is happening! NOW!" I shouted, getting far enough away from the shop to toss him behind me and for me to ready my bow.

Just as expected. The growling soon became shrieking, almost like a bat's sonar. I looked to Vincent to see if he had heard it as well. When he was unresponsive of it, I knew it had to have been because of the curse that I could detect the sound. Then, the obvious sound of shifting and crashing echoed from the shop. From what I could see with my flashlight dimly lighting the shop, the wing struggled a little bit to pull away, but once it did, half of the shop's supplied came down with it. The shifting and tumbling sounds continued, as well as the silent calls of its sonar. I thought for a moment that it was stuck in something, when it suddenly crashed through the wall on the side of the shop.

It rolled over onto its wing. It's one wing. The wing was much larger than I thought it was, but seemed useless for flying for this creature. It was connected directly on the thing's back. Its massive red and black body was ape-like, but without fur or a tail. It had two, long front legs and two tiny hind legs. Its front legs had a sharp claw on each of them, the lining of the claws dripping with the same red liquid that had been plaguing me. And its head wasn't a head at all, just a large black hole with teeth like a leech. It was opening and closing rapidly, emitting the high pitched sonar. I felt almost crippled when it shouted out like that.

I backed away slightly and aimed the crossbow as it seemed to turn towards us, its wing spread to the ceiling of the mall. It shrieked out once again and I felt dizzy. I lost the control of my aim, when I felt a warming touch on my shoulder. I saw Father Vincent, standing almost proudly and prepared towards the creature. The look he had on his face was not one I was used to seeing. He then began to speak to the creature.

"So...you followed me here, huh?" He said. "Hideous thing...you haven't changed a bit."

The creature merely growled towards us in response. I didn't know what the hell Vincent was talking about or why he was even talking to it like that. He remained conversing with the one winged creature, whose 'head' seemed to cock back and forth almost like it was listening. But I still heard its siren, and if Vincent hadn't kept his hand on my shoulder, I would probably faint from dizziness. My arms were still too shaky to take proper aim. I tried to shake my head from the numbing sounds, when Vincent continued to speak.

"You...Purgatory's guard dog as it were...what are you doing here?" He shouted questioningly. "You vile parasite...you don't guard anything! You just sit there and act like a big bad wolf, but you pick off the scraps of whatever would happen to be thrown at your claws." Vincent grinned. As he spoke, I felt his hand tightening on my shoulder. The control in my hands and arms slowly built once again.

"Wait for it," He whispered to me as the creature took another step. "I'm going to get it to scream again. When I do, shot it in the throat."

"What?! But," I whispered back nervously as it reared back a bit. "I can't even see straight when it shouts like that."

"Trust me. That'll help you," He whispered to finish with me, then turned back to the creature. "You're a wuss! You've never known how to fight, and you were banished with only one wing! You poor thing. Don't you miss flying? Here you are...try to fly! Try it!"

With that, the creature pounced back on its hind legs, then hard to the ground with its front, emitting a shrill alarm through its long throat.

"Now! Shoot it!" Vincent commanded as his hand released from my shoulder. For some reason, I felt greatly overpowered with the adrenaline I felt. I quickly pointed my crossbow and bolt towards the end of its throat, inhaled deeply and let it fly. I heard a tiny puncture sound echo through it before it reared its head back and shook it back and forth. I saw it was trying to shriek out, but I heard nothing. I got it right where I had to.

"There! Now it's all yours!" Vincent said, backing away.

"G-...Great!" I shouted with mild sarcasm, but so pumped with adrenaline that I couldn't contain myself.

Running up towards the creature, I saw that I had essentially blinded it since it couldn't emit sonar anymore. It began to lash out with its two front claws, and every now and then, it would spin in a circle and shake, its long wing slamming back and forth like a dog's long ear. I thought if I could shoot a dozen or so bolts into its red, pulsating chest, that would bring it down. But I had to avoid its slashing claws to be able to even get a sight of its chest.

I bounded back as it attempted to lash out for me and aimed for its exposed underside. I managed to shoot in about four bolts before it shot out its claw again. It scaved me against my left side, causing me to fall back a bit. I didn't want to let this thing beat me down, but the razor fine claw cut in deep. I struggled to stand back up and avoid its whipping wing, when the wind from it pushed me back out of range. I gripped tightly onto my bow and ran back at it, standing to its left side and aiming just beneath its red flesh. I thought if I could scave it similar to how it did me, I could do more damage to it.

With a trembling aim, I shot two bolts for it. One dug into its side where the other skimmed just beneath it, cutting it open along the way to hit the wall. I could tell it felt the pain greatly as it twisted obscenely. As it arched and shifted, the bony side of its wing bashed against my wounded side, causing it to ache that much more. I fell and skidded as far as to be right beneath its bleeding stomach. I felt like if I killed it where I was now, I'd wind up getting crushed by it. But if I didn't kill it here, it might wind up taking me down with it as it died. Finally, my mind thought quickly and my hands acted on it.

I grabbed at the razor sharp bolts I had left and set them in between my fingers, readying myself. And before it could stop moving and realize I was beneath it, I quickly punched into its stomach with both hands several times, stabbing him over and over. After the third time, I left the bolts inside the creature. It wriggled above me and shifted to the right, beginning to tremble above me. I tried to get up, but the wound in my side prevented me from stabilizing my left side. I could do nothing else but get into the fetal position to try and protect myself. Suddenly, I felt a sharp tug on my sweater and my body skidding away from the crashing beast. I looked forward ahead of me and saw the wing and body tumbling within each other, falling finally to its death.

I panted relieved and turned onto my back, when a sudden cold air hit my stomach. I looked up to see that Father Vincent had lifted my sweater from my body. I paused for a moment, trying to piece everything together, then...

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I shouted back to him, trying to push him away. "You PERVERT!"

"Relax already! I'm just checking your injury!" He shouted back, holding my shoulder. "You're not healing!"

"Wha...?" I questioned, then finally felt the pain in my side. I writhed in the agony and bent over from it, wondering myself why I wasn't healing.

"Please," Vincent held my shoulder, trying to push me away from the posture. "Just let me check it for you. I know what these things can do." With reluctance and pain, I leaned back and he respectively tended to my wound through the ripped section on my sweater this time. "Yeah...it got you with its venom."

"V-Venom...what...what venom...what now?!" I asked nervously, not exactly pleased to know I might be infected with yet another curse.

"It's nothing deadly...don't worry. It just repels the cursed liquid to take a full effect right away. It seems like you're gonna have this wound for a while." Vincent said, leaning back and reaching into his pocket.

"S-So...the blood from that thing can cure what I have?!" I asked excited for a brief moment.

"In a sense, yes...but now you've killed it, so the blood in its body has gone stale by now...but maybe if you're lucky, the little bit you have there will help you...not...heal?" Vincent smirked for the first time in a while. "To be honest, I've never seen anyone excited to be able to get injuries you can't heal instantly from."

"That's the **only** good thing about this curse...the rest of it, I want gone." I sighed and looked to him as he searched through his pockets, then pulled out a wrapping bandage.

"I guess that's true...stay still." He said as he began for the wound.

"How do you have that bandage?" I said, suspicious.

"Over there." He pointed behind me where there was a pharmacy broken apart by the creature. "I figured we'd need a lot from there, so I packed up a little bit." Vincent smirked and glanced to me through his fine glasses. I couldn't help but look away from that smug jerk. But I allowed him to completely bind my wound as he carefully wrapped the bandage around my stomach several times. The blood already began to seep onto the wrappings, but I tried not to think about it too much.

I sighed and started to sit up, then stopped. For some reason, the right side of my vision seemed to darken.

"V-Vincent...wait," I said before waving a hand in front of my face. "I...I can't see out of my right eye."

"What? Are you sure?" He said, kneeling down to me and looking into my eyes.

"Yeah," I blinked a few times and turned my head around, holding a hand over my left eye. "I...I'm completely blind out of this eye!" I started to panic a little. Losing any sense in a place like this was death. "Is it from the venom?!"

"I'm not sure," He said, standing and holding a hand down to me. "But if you need me to, I'll cover you until it gets better. I'm sure it will, too."

"I don't know...I hope it will."

I let Vincent help me back up and gain my footing back, picking up my crossbow and keeping it to my left side. I looked once again to the creature, knowing that it was only the first boss.


	12. Old Friends

**AN: Sorry for the late post, I'll be putting up TAT today as well to catch up.**

After at least the first or second boss in a Silent Hill game, there is a calm where everything seems to be better, until the next major event occurs to bring back the curse. For some time, at least, we tried to make something of this peace. Even though it would be understandable that no sane person would want to eat in a situation like this, we were both starving. He and myself, with the curse, the venom now and the wound that was healing on a normal human pace, agreed to at least forge whatever we could find. We remained silent through the voyage to find the food court, which was on the second floor of the center corridor. I looked around carefully to try to get used to the lose of vision in my left eye. All other shops were of unimportance at the moment, and if we'd need either ammo or health services, we knew where to find them. We found a few venders that had food at one point at a plentiful amount where not one person didn't receive what they ordered, and fast too. We approached the fast food section and gathered anything we wanted. Even with our hunger, we couldn't get too much to carry. We each made a full tray of various foods from each stand and made way to a table.

"It's strange," I said before sitting down and setting down the tray. "I'm always so used to this place being loud and unrulely. It would usually be impossible to get a seat, none the less two seats and a table."

"I'd imagine that's true," Vincent said, already beginning to help himself to a large cheeseburger. "Now the unruleliness isn't from others like us...I sort of miss that chaos more than this...people shoving others out of the way to grab the seat before them. But now," He looked around the eating area. "Not a soul to bother us."

I looked down to my food, beginning to shake from my quivering hands. "What happened...my life...the way it was...it's gone...I don't even know if I have one friend left," I placed the tray down and sat in my chair, looking to the floor, holding a hand over my working eye and sighing as I still couldn't see through the other. I felt Vincent's eyes shift to mine. I felt his pity. I gave a half smile trying to act less worried, but it wasn't a very good mask. "Well...I guess...there might be some hope...cause...this isn't even really Silent Hill. This is just my small town...and that's...what makes this that much more worrying."

"We're gonna get through this," he said through a mouthful of food. "We just need to keep our heads. We're going to the Police Department after here, right?"

"Yeah! I had almost forgotten!" I said, honestly losing track of my initial plan. "So let's make sure we get there before another Boss shows up. I'll see if I can grab some sort of bag to carry some more supplies before we leave."

"That's the way to think," Vincent said with a smile. This smile was different. It wasn't smug or cunning or deceiving...it was just a smile. One that gave me confidence. Made me feel reassuring. The sight of it also made my face get hot again. I quickly tried to cover it by eating my choice of a taco down quickly.

"Are you serious?!"

"OH MY GOD!"

We both jump at the sounds of two...human voices...shouting from behind me. I turned around to quickly become engulfed in two sets of arms. The shock of the pounce was enough to push me off of the chair and onto the floor. To my immediate left, a head was sobbing into my shoulder. To my right, deep breathing and much muffled shrieking. I couldn't react before Father Vincent stood from his chair and held a hand to the airsoft gun he kept in his pant pocket. My eyes widened to him and I raised a hand in his direction to stop him.

"Wait wait wait!" I said to him, wrapping my arms around the two human beings. "Hang on! Are..."

"I'm SO glad we're not alone!" The one to the left wailed while still crying.

"Thank you, God...I didn't think we'd ever see anyone again," The one to the right sighed happily, hugging an arm around me tighter. Both of the voices sounded familiar...once I realized it, I felt my eyes well up. I couldn't help it. I held the both of them tighter than I could even muster.

"You're alive! You're both alive!" I shouted happily, not caring that I was still on the floor with the two of them.

* * *

After a moment of consolation and getting off of the ground, I gave proper introductions to Father Vincent.

"These are two of my friends since...I don't even know how long! This," I motioned to the one who had been crying into my shoulder. "Is my old college friend, Jake...he's obviously a bit shaken up right now." I said worriedly to my friend. He tried to catch his breath and calm down. His long brown hair was mattered and he seemed to have gone through quite a bit. Probably a lot more than we have. His face and arms were cut up and bruised and, unfortunately weaponless. "This here," I gestured to my other friend. "Is Eric. And I'm actually surprised at how you came at me like that! Really not like you."

"Yeah, well after going through what the two of us just saw, any human would've gotten a hug from me. I don't care," He said, equally rattled but trying not to appear that way. His longer, dark hair hung in front of his face and flat against his shirt. He seemed worn down. "And this guy had to make himself useless and lose his weapon!" Eric shouted, already instigating things.

"I did NOT lose it! I had a katana from the Asian Goods store, saved your ass a couple of times with it and that one winged devil knocked it into its own side!" Jake shouted back.

"But do you have it on you right now? Huh?"

"No, I sa-"

"Yeah, that's the point! You don't have it! You lost it!"

Watching the two of them go back and forth like that reminded me of how Father Vincent and I were at the start of this all. And we knew it didn't solve any. So I stepped in to intervene and stop them.

"Now you two, STOP!"

I...did not say. Father Vincent approached behind me and walked around to the two, who were looking back to him.

"We have for you, Eric was it?" He started for him. "Plenty of weapons and ammunition in the store downstairs. We can even try to see if we can get back that sword, if not we'll just have to get another one," He then turned to Jake and eyed his wounds. "There's also a pharmacy right next to the store where we could patch you guys up. Also, have you two eaten?"

"Not yet, no. Fucking starving, too," Eric said, looking around the food court. "But hey, I can grab pretty much anything I want to right now, right?" He said with a hint of excitement.

"If you want, sure," I said back before he started off for the Taco Bell stand. "Jake, are you hungry?" I asked, turning back to him.

"I'm hurting too much to think about eating right now," He said, gripping at a sore and still bleeding arm. I approached it and looked at the series of deep gashes in his arm.

"You need to get those wrapped...Father Vincent. Do you still have some bandages?"

"Hardly much left," he said, reaching into his pocket. "I used most of it on your injury."

"Wait, you got hurt? How bad?!" Jake asked, suddenly worried.

"I'm alright, don't worry. I'll talk about it later." I said, not wanting to stress him further with my injuries and new blindness.

"I can probably bind one of the wounds on your wrist. That seems to be how much I have left, sorry," Vincent said, pulling out a small amount of wrapping bandages from his pocket and binding Jake's wrist carefully.

"You're gonna need a lot more than that...you're torn up," I said, concerned for him, though also thinking about getting more supplies for all of us now.

"I know...and I guess you have a good idea on why," He said with a nervous sigh. I looked to Father Vincent, then to Eric who was standing behind the stand gathering as much as he wanted. "Vincent...I want you to keep an eye on these two for me...please. Just make sure nothing happens to them."

"Alright. I think I can handle that. But what if something were to happen. Something shows up I mean."

"You have your airsoft gun. I know it won't kill them off, but it'll surely do something. Enough for you guys to make an escape. I'm gonna be down at the pharmacy. I should be back with supplies soon enough."

"Dumbass move!" I heard Eric call out behind the stand. "Never split up from a group in a survival horror game! You should know this!"

"Of COURSE I know this!" I shouted back to him without anger. "Besides, I have a little secret that'll keep me safe," I then approached Father Vincent close, bringing my lips to his ear. "Gimme the prayer beads."

I felt him smile against my cheek, then go into his back pocket. He took my right hand and slid the beads inside. But before I could leave, he held my hand tight, pulling me back in.

"Take care," he whispered quickly into my ear before I felt something touch the side of my cheek. My eyes widened infuriated and I pushed him away harshly, storming off.

"I'M GETTING YOU BACK FOR THAT!" I shouted, trying to rub the feeling of his lips away with my sleeve, also hiding my blush at the same time.


	13. The Hunters' Howl

**AN: Once again, I apologize for being a day late on this story. My Pokemon story might also run a tad overdue, because I've yet to write beyond that point in the story when I first wrote it. The same case might be said with my Ace Attorney story after today's update. I apologize for any further time taken off of the original schedule.**

****Making my way back down to the pharmacy, I continued to fume at the feeling of Father Vincent's lips against my cheek. What the hell was he thinking on doing that?! I felt my face stay at the constant red, from what I hoped was anger. Infatuation and the curse were the last things I wanted to show on my face. As I walked, I cocked and released the unloaded crossbow almost like a habit, trying to get that thought out of my head.

"Hey..." I heard a voice behind me. I turned to see the slightly limping Jake follow up behind me.

"What are you doing here?!" I asked worriedly, walking up to him. "You're injured pretty badly. I wanted you to stay with Eric and Father Vincent, you idiot."

"I know, but going at this alone is never a good idea."

"Going at this with all your wounds is a worse idea..."

Jake sighed and his head fell a bit, noting that I was right. He then reached into his back pocket and looked back to me. "I don't want to get in your way. I'll go back, but I want you to have this. It might come in handy for you, or it might not. Either way, it's yours."

He held out his fist, making me outstretch my hand beneath it. He dropped something that felt heavier than its size let on. I looked down to it and saw it was a disk-like charm. It looked similar to the Seal of Metatron, but the pattern was different, almost like the Mark of Samael. It was a blend of both, but was actually neither.

"What exactly is it? A portable save point or something?" I asked, looking back up. But when I did, Jake was no longer there. It was a long hallway, so he couldn't have gotten far in that short amount of time, especially in his condition. I looked around for any open or broken shops, but saw he was in none of them. "How did he..." I shook my head and slipped the disk in my pocket, trying to refrain from coming up with logic now.

I continued up for the pharmacy, crossbow still held at the ready. I could never tell when there would be a coming transition into the cursed world, so I needed to be on my guard. Once the red sign of the pharmacy came into view, I ran for the entrance. The store was small, so it had only one closed door in the front. It wasn't exactly the place for sell-out items, except in the winter. I stopped in front of the door and grabbed at the handle, pulling at it.

I stopped after tugging for a few seconds. It refused to open...how did Father Vincent get the materials then? I looked to the handle of the door and felt my heart sink.

"Oh, no no no NO!" I shouted, banging my head against the glass door. The lock was broken. The one thing that would only happen in Silent Hill that would be a way to prevent anyone from entering. "Why?! Why can't it be broken so I can get in easily?!" I turned away from the door and shouted up to the second floor. "VINCENT! GET DOWN HERE! How the HELL did you get in?!"

_CraSHEEEEEEEEEEEEE_

I ducked down from the sound of very loud breaking of glass behind me. I turned around slowly to see a disfigured mannequin body lain on the ground, scattered glass around it and blood splotched all about the body. I held my crossbow up to it, expecting it to come to life at any moment. I then pointed it for the broken window of the pharmacy, looking for whatever may have thrown it through. Circling around to the front of the window, I glanced down to the mannequin.

"There's something in its hand..." I said to myself, looking to the dismembered right hand of the mannequin. "It doesn't look like I can get it out though..." Reluctantly, I took the hand away from the mannequin and stuck it tightly into my pocket. I didn't want to think about what would happen if I left any item unacquired.

Looking back to the broken window, I knew that was the only way I'll be able to access it. Carefully, I stepped in and around the shards of glass, standing on the countertop inside the store. There were two isles, one for medicine and one for first aid. I saw there was a recyclable blue bag behind the counter. I grabbed for it and placed all the items I already had inside of it, making things more convenient for me than to just stick things in my pocket.

Then, making my way for the first aid isle, I wanted to gather as much as I could without overloading myself. I looked to the isle, feeling myself want to cry once again.

"NOT AGAIN~!" I shouted to myself. All of the medical supplies were behind thick glass, and on the door was a lock with buttons...more than nine this time. And it was a blend of numbers and letters. I fell to my knees, knowing what was in my way...another puzzle.

* * *

I leaned my head against the glass keeping me from the medical supplies. I had no clues that could help me on the code. There wasn't any poem, riddle, suggestion or item in the whole pharmacy that I found helpful. Not even the name of the pharmacy matched with the code on my arm. I looked inside the container to the medical kits inside. I even saw an ampoule, which brought me close to tears.

"Come on~..." I whined to no one, banging my head against the glass again. I wish I hadn't lost my bat or else this wouldn't be a problem. "Why does this exist?!"

"SHIT! GET OUT OF THERE!" I heard a shouting from a distance. I jumped back and realized it was Eric shouting in sheer terror.

"I don't know how to work this! Just run!" Father Vincent's voice shouted afterwards. With that, I had to at least get back up there. The medical supplies can wait until I get someone's help on the puzzle.

I jumped back out the broken window and ran back for the second floor, running up the broken escalator. Readying a bolt on my crossbow, I finally reached the top and stood in front of the food court. Quickly, Eric and Father Vincent ran up past me. Jake was already well past them, leaning against the guard rail separating the second floor from the hole leading to the first. I aimed back and forth with my crossbow in the food court, looking for whatever it was they were running from.

"What's going on, guys?!"

"We decided to run from NOTHING, THAT'S what's happening!" Eric snapped back at me. I ignored him by aiming for the sounds of echoed crashing in front of me.

"There's some weird new monster running through the inside of each stand. Almost like a pack of wolves all in one wolf!" Vincent said, sounding genuinely worried for once.

"Wolves?! Great! I was wondering when dogs would start showing up!"

"NOT dogs! WOLVES!"

In that instant, the creature crashed through the stand closest to us. I saw where Father Vincent required a correction in my assumption. The creature was much larger than any dog I've seen, even larger than any wolf I could remember. Its right eye seemed to bulge out of its socket and shift back and forth like crazy. Its mouth was permanently left open with the lack of lower jaw, with its teeth from its upper jaw curving upwards at their long ends. Its body seemed half rotten; the right side covered in mangy, black fur and the left side exposing ribs and organs. I knew that had to be the weak point, but getting there may be difficult.

"Guys...I need help with this thing..." I said, backing away slightly as the wolf creature began to approach, its tongue dangling out of its throat and hitting its chest. I tried to keep my good eye on it while still talking to them. "Eric...take the airsoft gun from Vincent...you know how to use those."

I heard a fairly simple exchange happen behind me, then saw Eric hold the gun at the ready in my peripheral vision.

"Distract him...I need to get to its left side..."

"HEY, YOU MANGY SON-OF-A-BITCH!" I heard him holler and run around me towards the thing. He began shooting for its bulging eye, hitting it a few times and causing the thing to howl in pain. Once I finally came to on what I had to do, I ran for the left of the creature, which was easy as it began to hunt down Eric. It was easy to find the tender vital organs and aim for them, but keeping a steady aim while it would occasionally run and made pouncing motions was difficult. "SHOOT IT ALREADY!" Eric shouted back at me.

"I'm trying here!" I answered, shooting a bolt clumsily and missing, reloading quickly and shooting into the thing's stomach. It howled in pain once again and began to make a turn towards me. I tried to remain on its left side, but I had forgotten about the chairs and tables of the food court. I ran into one and tripped over the leg of the chair. Trying to keep up on the fight, I pointed the crossbow sideways at the wolf-like thing. I could tell, by how I was hitting it only on its legs and tail, that I wasn't doing much in helping the situation.

The creature turned. I saw its one bulging eye was pointed straight at me. I heard Eric shouting at me to get up. I tried to. My mind shouted for my body to respond. Nothing happened. I looked to my hands...

There it was again. The red-black fluid pulsing through my veins and visible through my skin. It forced me to drop the crossbow away from my body. The vision in my left eye slowly began to match the color of the fluid. If it took me over, it may be able to take care of the creature. Or it may attempt to kill me again. Either way, I couldn't stop it this time. I tried to look to Father Vincent for help, but something was amiss. He was just standing there...watching me. His silhouette was dark with only his glasses shining against the light. I tried shouting, but the liquid kept me still and silent. All I could do was wait for either the curse or the wolf to kill me.

I shut my eyes. It was the one thing the curse allowed me to do. I suddenly heard a loud, shrill cry, much like a dog in extreme pain. I opened my eyes slowly to see the creature had been stabbed through its gaping mouth by a rather impressive sword. The wielder, dark in my sight, held the blade in there for a moment, then slid it back out and held it steady. The wolf took a moment to react, and did so by falling with a thud on one side. I could see it was dead. I wanted to thank my sudden hero, but the curse was coursing well through my body. I wished for help but decided to accept the fact that it didn't want to come.


End file.
